Aerial photos
-- a 2009 shot from Getty compared to 2017 shots from television broadcasts
-- show former President Barack Obama's 2009 inauguration appeared to draw
a much larger crowd than the one at Trump's inauguration, while
Washington's mass transit ridership and Nielsen television
ratings
also show Obama's first inauguration was a larger draw.

A source told CNN that Trump was enraged about photographic comparisons of
the two inaugurations. Trump publicly complained about media coverage of
the size of his inauguration crowd during a visit to CIA headquarters
Saturday. Hours later, Spicer followed suit in the White House briefing
room, then left without taking questions.

In seeking to set the record straight, the Trump administration worsened
its PR headache.

Here are two lessons communicators can take from the prickly response to
Friday’s numbers:

1. Use PR spin at your own risk.

Trump lashed out at journalists and accused them of distorting the
attendance figures:

Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, used his first White House briefing
to shout at journalists about what he incorrectly termed “deliberately
false reporting” on Trump’s inauguration, declaring: “We’re going to hold
the press accountable.”

“This was the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration, period,”
said Spicer, in one of several statements
contradicted by photographs and transit data. “These attempts to lessen the enthusiasm of the inauguration are shameful
and wrong.”

Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, was later confronted by Chuck
Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press” about Spicer’s statements. Her reply was
that Spicer “gave alternative facts” to the data and photographs shared in
news reports:

The phrase “alternative facts” has been used mockingly in many
news headlines and has become the subject of
online derision from social media users.

PR pros should think twice about how they present details of a recent event
or an executive’s move that has elicited backlash.

As Conway showed, putting spin on a negative piece of news by calling it a
different name or changing the conversation can draw more attention to the
situation—and bring people to question your organization’s credibility.

It’s best to face the situation head on—if you’re going to respond at all.
PR pros might do well to remember that not every situation should involve a
PR response; sometimes it’s best to let the news cycle move on to the next
big thing.

2. Consumers’ content consumption behaviors are changing.

The numbers reported for live attendance and TV viewing for Friday’s
inauguration might have been unimpressive, but the event broke the record
for the most-watched news event online.

Akamai Technologies—the company behind video content for news outlets and
other organizations around the world—said in a press release that the
inauguration was the “largest single live news event that the company has
delivered.”

Live video streaming of the Inauguration peaked at 8.7 Tbps at 12:04 p.m.
ET during the opening of the President’s speech, exceeding the previous
record of 7.5 Tbps set during Election Day coverage on the evening of
November 8th, 2016. Akamai supported 4.6 million concurrent viewers of the
Inauguration at peak on behalf of its leading broadcaster customers.

[Akamai’s] measurements are precise. The coverage reached a peak of 8.7
terabytes per second at 12:04 p.m. ET during the opening of the president’s
speech, exceeding the previous record of 7.5 terabytes — Tbps — set during
Election Day coverage in November. And what the heck is a terabyte? The
term refers to a data transmission rate equivalent to 1,000 gigabytes — or
1,000,000,000,000 bytes — per second. In terms of an audience, that
measurement translates into 4.6 million people watching the streaming
coverage — about what ABC and CBS garnered during the same time period.

In comparison, President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration reached 1.1 Tbps,
and the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton reached 1.3 Tbps—well
under the 8.7 Tbps of Trump’s inauguration.

What does this mean for PR pros? Consumers’ preferred communications
channels are changing, and brand managers would be wise to change with
them.

If your media relations campaign is continuing to decline, an overhaul on
your organization’s newsroom—with a focus on brand journalism and engaging
content—might be in order. Want to reach younger consumers? Look beyond
traditional tactics such as direct mail and move to social media platforms
(specifically messaging apps). Changing your tactics to suit your
audience’s behaviors and current trends can boost your ROI and ensure that
you’re keeping pace with industry best practices.